Appropriately for my New Year’s resolution to start a “verisimilitudes” topic,today’s xkcd comicmentions Wikipedia’s list of common misconceptions, a moderately entertaining read. In the future, I promise to not simply link to Wikipedia. Here are some of my favorite highlights from the list:

1. Napoleon Bonaparte was not particularly short.
2. The Great Wall of China is not visible from the Moon.
3. When a meteor lands on Earth, it is not usually hot.
4. Sugar does not cause hyperactivity in children.
5. Being cold for a prolonged period of time does not increase the likelihood of a cold.
6. Men do not think about sex every seven seconds (at least there is no good evidence for this).
7. Pure water is not a good conductor of electricity.
8. Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet and Thomas Edison did not invent the light bulb.

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